[MacMahon] Rockets rekindle extension talks with MDA

I understand, but the odds of dumping GM/coach who have us in the top 3 and replacing them with a combination that gets us any higher are almost astronomical. Much better odds at reworking the roster to try to get better.

 

I disagree. It’s time to move on. Best days for this group are in the rear view and MD is not a very good coach. Regular season winning % has won us nothing and will be remembered by no one.

 

I think that was more of a situation where Harden was entering his prime. Dwight also expressed in being coached by McHale. But, now our whole team save CP3 is scared to death to have a mid-range game. The Warriors are a much better 3 pt shooting team than us and still somehow Kerr seems to think it's ok to take numerous mid range shots all game long, weird.

 

It’s really not that complicated.

They not only have better 3 point shooters, those same guys and some of their role players are also good to very good midrange shooters.

It’s how despite taking a less “analytically correct” shot selection compared to us they still come up with a better offensive rating. They can shoot from anywhere effectively.

Conversely you can say it’s why even with far less shooting talent, our adherence to shooting from the analytic hot spots is why we consistently come so close to their offensive ratings.

 

Close isn't cutting it unfortunately.

Like Isiah Thomas said, you have to guard all aspects of the floor with them. With us, you know we are going to drive and kick everytime or drive and create contact. Makes us easier to defend.

I also have no doubt in my mind that Harden and Gordon could hit mid range jumpers. They're in the NBA for Pete's sake.

MDA would rather just focus on the premise that 3 is greater than 2. While true, I'd like us to be more multidimensional, instead of beating our head against analytics all day. Let's try something new, I don't want to get bounced 5 straight seasons by these guys, you know?

 

And I’d argue if we let guys who are proven to be mediocre mid range shooters to shoot more mid range against a superior offensive team then we need to have one of the best defenses in NBA history because our offense will suffer.

I don’t buy this in the regular season it’s hard to defend and in the playoffs it’s all of a sudden easy narrative that gets thrown out. Every single person involved with the NBA knows how we play. We aren’t surprising anyone on a random Tuesday during the season with something they have never seen before, especially considering the league as a whole is shifting to a similar shot selection. The difference is pretty easy to see. The playoffs offer up better defenses. These last 2 postseasons alone we have faced Utah and GS two times each. High end defenses.

I think finding a better way to blend Harden’s historic isolation talents with some other things is the way to go to improve on what we have. Abandoning the 3s, layups and free throws model will only make things harder, unless again you have unreal shooting talent.

 

Actually Rockets have a bunch of 3pt brickers, but still allowed to shoot three.

 

Because those same “brickers” have also proven to brick their midrange shots too.

 

Give it up man, I guarantee you that majority of these parrots have not played basketball at some competitive level.

"They can't hit midrange shots!"

The stupidest logic i've ever ****ing heard. Somehow they can't compute what an open FT in a game is, and why teams design plays for it. Shoot the damn 3, shoot a lot of them, but be versatile at the same time. Every team but the rockets and a band of morons here seems to grasp this. Evidence/outcomes based results don't favor them in the least, no team as one dimensional as the rockets has ever done well.

The math isn't wrong, math is never wrong. It's confounders, missing variables. Everything can be quantified, its a matter of finding these variables. The psychological impact of missed shots, droughts, long rebounds, there is just so much more that goes into this. Its not as simple as 3 > 2 and hoping to hit the average with increased possessions (not to mention that this doesn't work at the end of games due to the larger variance and fewer possessions). The greatest shooting 3pt of all time (GSW) isn't choosing to shoot the 2nd most midrange jumpers because they're stupid. They understand this.

 

So they miss those mid range, and you still expect they can make those threes which has longer distance? It makes no sense.

 

They didn't even have KD for 1.5 games and they still beat us 4-2, terrible.

Absolutely no in game adjustments were made by MDA, Faried all of a sudden became unplayable, even after Capela was having his worst series in his career. Shumpert gets trotted out there though, even though House is by far a better offensive player, there's your 3 is greater than 2 player right there then.

Playoff basketball is most certainly different, defenses dig in, more half court sets are used, and it becomes much more of a matchup game. Look at how Toronto figured out Giannis, why wasn't that tried at all during the regular season? They collapsed 2 on him at the top of the key taking away his take off ability and made him fumble around looking for open shooters. Nurse also was forced to put Khawi on him as instead of Siakim. Kerr did a masterful job shuffling lineups against us, giving us different looks by starting Iggy and then Livingston. My point is that the adjustments were made by 2 very bold, schematic coaches. I just don't see this at all in MDA. Our players shouldn't have to apologise for taking mid range shoots, especially if that's what we're being given, inefficient or otherwise.

Geez what if that could have been our adjustment then? Give the Warriors a cause for pause to then have to counter adjust possibly? My point also being the really efficient way we've been playing so to speak, has got us bounced continually. Time for a tweak, and I unfortunately don't think that's going to be made under MDA. The only tweaks I see are Harden adding something to his game every summer. That's awesome, but I need more than this run and back and everything will be different nonsense. It hasn't gotten us to where we need to be, period.

 

Right, Isiah Thomas is wrong then in their opinion? He doesn't understand math and know basketball at the highest level. Ok. I don't even like the guy, but he's right on money with his assessment.

We obviously don't have the Warriors personnel, no one does. But, the fact they can score in so many different ways is exhausting to the opposition. I'm such of praying that Harden goes bonkers every game just to have a chance in triple overtime vs the Nets, it's crap and I'm sure Harden feels the same way. The unquestionable MVP for that reason alone, the bail out king.

 

The shooting percentages of every single player at various spots on the floor are available.

The Rockets choose to not ignore this information.

And how you described the Warriors is exactly why coming close isn’t some excuse. It is why that they are so difficult to beat when healthy. And not beating them is a terrible all in one point of evidence to use as to why certain things people don’t like will never work. The numbers suggest in the context of scoring points efficiently that it very much is working, especially given our personnel.

There are very real other reasons we haven’t gotten over the hump. Our offense is extremely low on that list. It’s been the same for years. Defense, defense, defense.

 

I get that nobody foresaw the wheels falling off Capela with his -30 per a**

But, iirc weren't we like #2 after the break in defense efficiency!?

Surely, there has to be something besides JUST play better defense that we can expound upon going forward. That would be better in game adjustments and creativity, plus lengthing his rotation, aka getting younger. This brings us now full circle as to the original topic of this post.

 

Terrible? Warriors have ruled the West for 5 years. I guess the West is terrible.

 

Terrible, yes. The Clippers beat the Warriors twice the series before also, at ORACLE. Couldn't seal the deal on a 20 point comeback in game 5 when KD left. Harden decided not to take a shot for the last 6 minutes of that one... That we proceeded to crap the bed in game 6 when Harden decided to get pouty with CP3. You could also call it straight trash, whichever one you prefer.

 

MDA needs to learn how to adjust. Morey needs to be open to more shot types (eg, midrange) when our first plan isn’t effective. Our roster may need some more youthful size and mental fortitude.

 

Okay. Stros have the least of problems. Got it.

 

For those of you who are saying MDA isn't a good coach and that we need someone else: Why is it that the guys recognized most often around here as good or great coaches aren't doing as well as we've been doing the last three years? Snyder, Stevens, Pop, Carlisle, Doc, Spoelstra, etc. None of these guys are having as much success as MDA is having with the Rockets. Yet a mediocre coach and a rookie coach are in the finals.

I know the goal is to win a chip, but that's insanely hard to do, and MDA's consistent regular season success gives us a high seed in the playoffs every year and gets us home court advantage for the first two rounds (would've had it this year if not for the Nugs getting Nuggy those last couple of games).

I still recall vividly how much of a struggle it was under McHale and JB, and how we got knocked out in the first round 1-4 and 2-4. Here are the playoff records of our coaches post-Rudy:

MDA - 23-16
JB - 1-4
Milkhair - 13-16, missed playoffs twice
Adelman - 9-19, missed playoffs twice
JVG - 7-12, missed playoffs once

In 13 years with those last four guys, we got into the 2nd round twice with 7 1st-round exits and 4 seasons missing the playoffs altogether. And Adelman and JVG were very well-respected coaches.